ANAHEIM – The best-hitting young catcher in the game was no match for the two-headed backstop attack the Angels threw at the Minnesota Twins on Friday.

The Twins’ Joe Mauer hit two home runs off John Lackey, but Jeff Mathis and Mike Napoli countered with home runs of their own as the Angels won a long-ball showdown 6-3.

Mathis was the actual Angels catcher on Friday, and his fifth-inning home run off Francisco Liriano matched a solo shot Mauer hit one inning earlier.

Mauer seemed to take it as some kind of challenge and in the sixth inning hit another solo shot deep into the seats in right field for his 17th of the season and first multi-homer game this year.

Napoli, who was in the Angels’ lineup at designated hitter, would have none of it. He topped them all in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run shot into the seats in right field to give the Angels a 6-2 lead.

It was another sign that the streaky Napoli is getting hot again. He entered Friday’s game with a .319 batting average over his last 27 games. And just one night earlier, he not only scored the game-tying run in the ninth inning but he hit a game-winning double in the 10th.

One start after throwing nine scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics, Lackey was shutting down everybody again, outside of Mauer. The right-hander gave up two runs on four hits over 72/3 innings with two walks and three strikeouts.

Lackey remains just one strikeout away from tying Frank Tanana (1,233) for fourth on the Angels’ all-time list.

Over his past six starts, Lackey has been brilliant in all but a July 7 matchup with the Texas Rangers, when he gave up six runs in 42/3 innings. In the other five starts he did not give up more than two runs and didn’t allow any in two of them.

Robb Quinlan, in a rare start in left field, got the Angels started in the second inning with a two-run home run. It was Quinlan’s second homer of the season with both coming this week. He also had one in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader at Kansas City.

At least this time, the Angels didn’t fall back on their ability to rally in the late innings like they did in the series opener. Two runs in the ninth inning Thursday against lock-down closer Joe Nathan tied the game and set up Napoli’s game-winner. Their 31 comeback victories are the most in baseball.

The Angels never trailed on Friday, although they were completely prepared if things went in that direction.

“We’ve been fortunate that a lot of our comeback wins have been before you get to a setup man or a closer,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “(Thursday), getting to Nathan, it happens about as often as you go 65 mph on the 101. Can I drop that line again? It doesn’t happen very often.”

Lackey’s strong outing made sure the Angels weren’t looking up from inside a hole.

Scioscia was asked if some of the comeback credit goes to the pitching staff’s ability to limit extreme damage.

“Do they get credit, or is it because of the pitching staff?” Scioscia quipped.

“We’ve come back a lot because some of our starters have been inconsistent. Early runs, we know are important. That’s what we try to do as a team.

“You want to try and pressure teams every inning if you can. We’ve been behind in a lot of games because some of our starting pitchers have not gotten into their feel early enough.”